Democratic Nation Building: From Concept to Operational “Checklist”

Abstract

We begin this chapter by briefly reviewing the literature to develop a working definition of “democratic nation building.” Second, we look at a series of case studies to identify the activities and commitments that countries engaged in nation building must make, and the conditions that should exist, if this enterprise is to be successful. Third, from that survey, we develop a “checklist” to be utilized by a country (say, the United States) in deciding whether or not to attempt nation building in a specific state (say, since one’s reach should exceed one’s grasp, Syria or Iran). Last, we take Germany and Haiti as cases in point and examine the extent to which the proposed checklist might have predicted the outcome of those nation building ventures.